Information Outlook Column (Sep/Oct. Issue: Info Tech)
Due Aug. 15, 2014
Are We Experts?
By Stephen Abram, MLS
Stephen Abram is managing principal of Lighthouse Consulting Inc. He has held
executive roles with information and software vendors as well as management roles in
libraries. He is a past president of SLA, the Ontario Library Association and the
Canadian Library Association. He is an international speaker and the author of a book,
ALA Edition’s Out Front with Stephen Abram, and a blog, Stephen’s Lighthouse. He
would love to hear from you at stephen.abram@gmail.com.
Are librarians actually experts? If so, what are we expert at? What is our expertise?
Stuart: I made this wordle which I think might make a nice visual for the column:
[Irony alert: liberal use of Google and Wikipedia – is that what ‘information experts’ do?]
The OED (via Google) tells us that this defines an ‘expert’:
expert [ˈekˌspərt]
Noun
a person who has a comprehensive and authoritative knowledge of or skill in a
particular area.
"experts in child development"
synonyms: specialist, authority, pundit; adept, maestro, virtuoso, master, past
master, wizard;
connoisseur, aficionado;
informal ace, buff, pro, techie, whiz, hotshot, maven, crackerjack
"she is an art expert"
adjective
having or involving authoritative knowledge.
"he had received expert academic advice"
Synonyms:
skillful, skilled, adept, accomplished, talented, fine; fine;
master, masterly, brilliant, virtuoso, magnificent, outstanding, great,
exceptional, excellent, first-class, firstrate, superb; proficient, good,able, capable, experienced, practiced, kno
wledgeable; informal ace, crack, mean
"an expert chess player"
Middle English (as an adjective): from French, from Latin expertus, past
participle of experiri 'try'. The noun use dates from the early 19th century
Compare with experience and experiment.
And Oxford (again via Google) defines ‘expertise’ thusly:
ex·per·tise [‘ekspərˈtēz,-ˈtēs/]
noun
expert skill or knowledge in a particular field.
"technical expertise"
synonyms: skill, skillfulness, expertness, prowess, proficiency, competence;
knowledge, mastery, ability, aptitude, facility, capability;
informal know-how
"a high level of expertise in psychiatry is required"
Mid-19th century: from French, from expert
Wikipedia – that engine of crowdsourced expertise of variant quality – states that
“An expert is someone widely recognized as a reliable source of technique or skill
whose faculty for judging or deciding rightly, justly, or wisely is accorded authority and
status by peers or the public in a specific well-distinguished domain. An expert, more
generally, is a person with extensive knowledge or ability based on research,
experience, or occupation and in a particular area of study. Experts are called in for
advice on their respective subject, but they do not always agree on the particulars of a
field of study. An expert can be believed, by virtue of
credential, training, education, profession, publication or experience, to have special
knowledge of a subject beyond that of the average person, sufficient that others
may officially (and legally) rely upon the individual's opinion. . . . .
Experts have a prolonged or intense experience through practice and education in a
particular field. In specific fields, the definition of expert is well established by consensus
and therefore it is not always necessary for individuals to have a professional or
academic qualification for them to be accepted as an expert. In this respect, a shepherd
with 50 years of experience tending flocks would be widely recognized as having
complete expertise in the use and training of sheep dogs and the care of sheep.
Another example from computer science is that an expert system may be taught by a
human and thereafter considered an expert, often outperforming human beings at
particular tasks. In law, an expert witness must be recognized
by argument and authority.”
So I ask you, what are special librarian and information professionals ‘expert’ at? What
is our expertise? Said another way, if we were called upon to testify in a court case,
how would we represent ourselves?
When do we qualify as an expert witness? “An expert witness, professional
witness or judicial expert is a witness, who by virtue of education, training, skill, or
experience, is believed to have expertise and specialized knowledge in a particular
subject beyond that of the average person, sufficient that others may officially and
legally rely upon the witness's specialized (scientific, technical or other) opinion about
an evidence or fact issue within the scope of his expertise, referred to as the expert
opinion, as an assistance to the fact-finder. Expert witnesses may also deliver expert
evidence about facts from the domain of their expertise. At times, their testimony may
be rebutted with a learned treatise, sometimes to the detriment of their reputations.”
(Wikipedia)
That said, are we expert upon graduation? Or is something more needed? What
distinguishes a novice, newbie, or intern from a fully performing ‘expert’ in our field?
What lines are crossed when we move through the stages from student through
graduation and first position to full expert? Is this what those job advertisements mean
when they require 5-10 years of relevant experience?
Experts?
So, back to this column’s title . . . Are librarians actually experts? If so, what are we
expert at? What is our expertise?
We seem to meet the criteria: we have an accredited education, a valued credential,
experiences and abilities in an occupation, and, indeed, a profession, a calling.
Worryingly, there are emergent expert systems where the definition above suggests that
they might outperform human experts.
And, more importantly, how do we communicate our expertness? What is our expertise
and what territory can we rightly or realistically claim? What do we want our clients to
know about our expertise?
First let’s think a little bit of what experts derive from being perceived as such.
An expert derives some benefits from being perceived as such. These include public
respect for your skills, moderate understanding of what you bring to the table, some
simple trust for your competencies, and, arguably, compensation differences if you’re an
accredited professional (vis a vis lawyers, doctors, engineers, therapists, etc.). You
also may pass hurdles like employment credentials or be accepted for skills based on
your education and credentials rather than being tested by your employer as part of the
hiring process.
Those are good things.
What is our ‘expertise’?
We may have a foundation of expertise and a shared philosophy of librarianship that
underpins being an information professional. That said, the age of generalists has
ended, if for no other reason than no one librarian can know all aspects of librarianship,
even in a defined sector. The age of specialization is on us.
We are a complex field and, sometimes, we might confuse our sector, industry, or field
expertise with the actual expertise of ‘information’. Our complexity runs the gamut with
information professionals having expert status in metadata, reference, research skills,
scholarly publishing, negotiation, design, and the list is too long to enumerate here.
How does this work in a technological field?
No doubt technology is not the place for lone wolves – despite the Steve Jobs or Mark
Zuckerberg et al mythology. It’s a team effort and no one person can hold all the keys.
So, we must represent our expertise – and expertness – in context as part of teams.
Many IT/IS folks are pretty expert in related areas but our teamwork with them on user
experience, research competencies, metadata, ontologies, taxonomies or whatever can
be critical to any project’s or enterprise’s success. We all have stories where our
experience, talents and expertise were demonstrated by asking the right question or
clarifying a research need or process that turned the research in the right direction.
Many of us has great stories of our impact on the work of our clients in our
organizations.
Sadly, I don’t have a simple and concise answer for what makes us all experts. Rats! I
do believe that we are. When asked, I say that ‘I know how to orchestrate information
that knowledge happens seamlessly’. I’ve discovered that, for me, this can generate a
better conversation than the “L” word. I also believe that we’re too deferential and don’t
promote our expertise consistently enough. A lot of what we do looks like magic,
because it happens in our heads and through experience with us – not as some tangible
result. Therefore it behooves us make sure that we have better strategies for
representing our intangible contributions to our employers’ successes. Off the top of my
head, here’s some tips that work for me:
Tips
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Know deeply what your expertise is and isn’t AND how it aligns with your clients’
needs and talents.
Don’t be arrogant (That’s harder than you may think!) but still be confident
Tell stories and back them up with data, measures, facts, proofs (not the other
way around)
Get and use testimonials – and use them with your client’s peers
Keep text tight and use visuals and graphics for impact
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Build relationships on many levels – friendships, colleagues, acquaintances,
professionals, peers . . .
Collect and use testimonials (even through regular reference, questions, or
project surveys)
Have something more than an elevator speech (but have that too)
Eye contact, eye contact, eye contact
Use the right body language – reflect the listener
Use the right words for the situation – avoid jargon
Communicate what efforts and decisions you made in delivering the results –
don’t just think they know already
Align with your culture visually and in words and actions
Chill out, relax, get comfy – remain approachable